Will Jami Lee spill the beans on National’s donations?
Jami-Lee Ross is threatening today to attempt to table details of National’s 2017 donations in Parliament.
International
China
Hong Kong principles
According to our Prime Minister, today’s announcement that New Zealand is suspending extradition arrangements with Hong Kong is because of our principles. But it is not immediately clear what these principles are, other than falling into line with our Five Eyes spying partners. Some history is important.
COVID-19: A human adapted virus
It has been obvious about COVID-19 that it is very well adapted to humans. It has evolved a good entry system to the humans, often has mild symptoms, long pre-symptomatic infectious period, and doesn’t kill many of its hosts. What has been less obvious is where it came from. It looks more like South East Asia rather than China.
We must welcome Kiwis home
With a new Immigration Minister this week, could we please get some reality to bringing our people home?
Unthinkable Things
With the government clearly watching the unravelling of Australia’s Covid-19 response and putting in place $14 billion in preparation for a second infection wave, we are clearly now in a history-in-making territory of the highest instability outside a world war.
Jian Yang announces retirement so he can spend more time with his family
Jian Yang, he with impeccable Chinese Communist Party links and of formidable fundraising ability, has announced that he is is retiring from politics.
Muller is floundering
Todd Muller had a bad day yesterday with adverse confidential National polling leaked to the media and with Grant Robertson and Winston Peters showing in the house that Muller’s denial that he had proposed opening up the border with China was simply not correct.
In defence of Ashley Bloomfield
National and elements of the media have gone full on attack on the Government’s and Ashley Bloomfield’s Covid 19 performance. Which is unusual given that there is still no examples of community transmission and all recent infections have been picked up through the quarantine system.
More Skripal bullshit
Skripal’s relatives don’t believe it, Jacinda Ardern doesn’t believe it, Paul Buchanan doesn’t believe it, and I never believed it. But a story planted in the UK Sunday Times that the Skripals are here lets our media rerun the assassination attempt that failed, even though the most deadliest poison in the world was involved. Stuff website has a British Minister from Theresa May’s time rerunning the old lies,as does the NZ Herald. Fits in nicely with the SIS anti-Russian history.
The four horsemen of the apocalypse
Ok so this is the worst year I can think of in my lifetime. But apocalyptopia it ain’t.
The International investigation into Covid-19
More than 110 nations have backed a call for the World Health Organisation to investigate the origins of the Covid-19 virus outbreak.
New Zealand’s poor in this new crisis
Covid 19 is not some great leveller. To succeed the state has to completely redirect the economy to so that ordinary workers and working families are supported.
Coronavirus and the State
A few weeks ago I slagged off the Chinese government for its response to the Corona virus and presumed that authoritarian states could never be as good as democratic states in responding to a pandemic. I want to revisit my opinion.
The Corona Virus and the Car
We just saw the stock markets lose their composure, but the stocks taking really big hits are the carmakers who have baked their profitability future into this largest growing car market.
China: Guns, Germs, and Steel
The coronavirus outbreak that exploded three weeks ago in the central Chinese city of Wuhan has prompted the most severe Chinese government actions in three decades.
Chinese New Year
With China’s New Year arriving, and a terrible flu virus struggling to be contained within it at the same time, it’s time to reflect again on China’s future and impact for New Zealand.
Bridges will talk tough to the Philippines but not China
Simon Bridges is visiting the Philippines. And unlike his recent trip to China this time he has decided to talk tough to the local leaders about human rights.
McClay accused of supporting China’s mass detention of muslims
Freedom House has criticised National MP Todd McClay for reinforcing Chinese descriptions of the mass imprisonment of Muslim minorities as vocational training centres.
Simon Bridges went to China
It has been revealed that Simon Bridges’trip to China last year was organised by National MP and former teacher of English to Chinese spies Jian Yang and that an offer of assistance from MFAT was declined.
Dunedin’s Hillside Rail Workshop
Good news for Dunedin and the Country as the Government has announced a $20 million upgrade of the Hillside Rail Workshop.
Brittle cities
It is pretty hard to miss a variety of cities around the world going nuts for apparently minor offences.
China independence day
October 1st is the National Day of the People’s Republic of China. They like to make it a big day, bigger than the […]
Macron speech – The end of Western hegemony
France President Macron’s remarkable and wide-ranging speech to French ambassadors after France hosted the recent G7 conference in Biarritz is well worth a read. He lays it all out – so much better than Trump’s tweets or BoJo’s bluster.
China, Climate Conference, and New Zealand
At the United Nations Climate Action Summit next weekend the question may be asked what would happen if China stopped buying Australian coal?
Forget Brexit
As Brexit fades our British parent country into a globally forgettable social embarrassment, we should remind ourselves that the only international politics of […]
Ross leaks again
Jami Lee Ross has released details showing National avoided restrictions against overseas donations by a New Zealand incorporated company being used to make the donation.
China Becomes Fascist
Those who see fascism emerging under Trump can observe the full modern version in action now in Hong Kong’s contest of protesters with the Chinese government.
Nuclear chickens coming home?
The Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces treaty between the United State and Russia signed by Reagan and Gorbachev in 1987 formally ended on August 2nd. On Sunday the new US Secretary of Defense Mark Esper dined privately with Winston Peters. Before and during his trip to the Pacific, Mark Esper called for placement of intermediate-range US missiles in Asia.
Peters, Pence, Pompeo and the Rapture
Hamish Rutherfurd writes that Winston Peters’ trip to the US to secure a trade deal is far-fetched and a waste of time. I agree. But if Peters has his agenda, so will Mike Pompeo, Mike Pence, John Bolton and Dan Coats have theirs. He was scheduled to meet them all. No wonder the 9th floor are worried.
5G flip flop
Six weeks after banning China’s leading tech firm Huawei from contracts with U.S. businesses, U.S. President Donald Trump appears to have reversed it after meeting China’s Premier Xi Jinping.
The Hong Kong protest worked
Carrie Lam, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong, has permanently suspended the legislative proposal to enable extradition of Hong Kong people to among other places mainland China.
FiveEyes on our elections
Andrew Little’s letter to the Select Committee on election interference puzzled me – it seemed to be out of the blue and not particularly relevant to our system. Then I read about a meeting on the Gold Coast last year and it became clear as to why – FiveEyes pressure.
Government under FiveEyes
Australian Federal Police chief Neil Gaughan told media after raiding the ABC that “if police did not investigate the leaking of classified information, Australia would no longer be entrusted by FiveEyes partners with intelligence that saves lives.” FiveEyes didn’t save Muslim lives in Christchurch.
Tiananmen Square’s Failed Revolution
Right now we could be dealing with a China with a similar mixed model to Vietnam, or a re-unified country like Germany. What happened to change this?
The Coming Global Economic Slowdown and New Zealand
With the United States – China trade war well underway, the sick chaos of Brexit is shrinking the U.K. economy and slowing much of Europe’s economy, and smaller economies such as that of Mexico in the crosshairs through further politically manufactured trade disputes, the second half of this year looks for New Zealand nowhere near as rosy as the first half.
Huawei go again
Mike Pompeo has just been in Britain trying to bully the UK government out of using Huawei for its 5G network. He and other officials have been heavying countries around the world. Its not working, but one thing is clear. It makes GCSB’s head Andrew Hampton’s assertion that its decision to reject Huawei was independent is simply not believable.